Saturday, July 31, 2010

How to pack for a RTW trip

Or, maybe I will revise this a few days or weeks from now and call it "How NOT to pack!" Either way, since I'm writing this from the Nashville airport, what's in my bag is what made the final cut. We're flying standby on Delta for the first leg(s) of the trip so we really don't want to check our bags in case we end up routing one way and the bags accidentally go somewhere else. Also, since we'll be carrying them on our backs for the next 8 months, we should be able to carry them through multiple airports on Day 1!

I guess you could say that packing my day bag (above) was the easy part. My only dilemma was that my REI backpack came with a detachable daypack but it's a bit smaller than the Eagle Creek day bag that I've been carrying for the past 12 years. I also have a fairly large Pacsafe purse which I really like because of its adjustable over the shoulder/across the body strap and multiple security features. So today I'm carrying everything in the photo above plus my netbook & charger in the REI daypack (which will barely zip closed as a result) and I've stuffed the empty purse into the outer pocket on the main backpack. I weighed the daypack when we checked in at the airport this morning and it registered 11lbs.

The photo above is of what is actually inside my backpack. It weighed in at 29lbs this morning. I was hoping to keep it closer to 25lbs, but assume it will get lighter as we travel due to use of medications, toiletries & other dispensable items. Of course, some of you may be wondering where we plan to put all our souvenirs. Actually, Greg & I have vowed not to buy any souvenirs unless we are willing to pay to ship them home immediately or, as I half-jokingly say, unless it is something that doesn't take up any room (like jewelry) or can be worn 24/7 (like a tattoo)! Besides, our best "souvenirs" will be our overall shared experience and these blog posts and photos.

This is what the backpack looks like completely packed. It doesn't scream "there's lots of cash & expensive travel gear stashed in here." Plus I have locks on all the major compartments to deter prying fingers. Check with me in a few weeks/months to see if all my safety measures are working.

Here is my RTW Gear Inventory. Greg is carrying comparable men's clothing & toiletries and he will be using the Lumix DMC-TS1 camera listed below.

Here we are at the Nashville airport at 4:30 this morning. We had hoped to get seats on the first flight to Atlanta at 5:30AM but there were other more senior employee standbys on the list ahead of us so some of them got on and the flight went out full (without us). Ditto for the next flight at 6:30AM. We re-listed to go through Salt Lake City instead of Atlanta at that point and tried for the one & only flight at 7:45AM. Close, but not quite! After spending a couple of hours regrouping in the SkyClub (special thanks to my mom for giving us day passes and all the other Delta employees who tried their best to find alternate routes for us), we decided to purchase one-way tickets on American Airlines from Nashville to Dallas Ft Worth to Los Angeles that cost only $225 for Greg and I used 25,000 AA miles and booked a last minute award ticket for $105. So we now have confirmed seats all the way to Los Angeles and are listed for the Delta flight to Sydney tonight at 10:35PM. It's hard to say what our odds are for getting on. There are other standbys who will get cleared before us due to their Delta employee seniority and/or active status, not to mention the flight is technically oversold by about 13 seats. But apparently there is a high no-show frequency for this flight, so we might have a chance. If we do get on tonight, we'll actually get to Sydney a day earlier than previously planned. If not, we'll have to overnight in Los Angeles and try again tomorrow night (and Monday, and Tuesday) and decide at what point we give up on flying standby and just purchase the one-way ticket (currently pricing from $750 and up. Thank goodness we bought tickets for all the other major legs of the trip with the exception of our flights home next year!

2 comments:

Looks like you've had a lot of organising to do - the effective measures you have taken to keep your stuff safe is something that all to many people don't take into serious-enough consideration. Also, you will be thankful of your your limited but practical list of women's clothing. You seem like a very organised and prepared person - enjoy your travels :)